Notre Dame junior Ronnie Stanley announced Tuesday that he will return for his senior season, giving the Irish one of the best left tackles in college football for another season. After being projected by some as a first round pick, Stanley made the decision to return for 2015.

It can happen. The right head coach can survive adversity and win a national championship. We saw that Monday night when Urban Meyer’s Ohio State Buckeyes manhandled Oregon on their way to a 42-20 victory.

The first four members of the 2015 recruiting class begin their time at Notre Dame on Tuesday, with classes starting for early-enrollee freshmen Tevon Coney, Micah Dew-Treadway, Tristen Hoge and Jerry Tillery. All four freshmen will take part in winter workouts and spring practice, set to start in early March.

Over the weekend, Sheldon Day announced he would be returning for his senior season at Notre Dame. The returning captain and the Irish’s best defensive lineman sought a draft grade from the NFL’s advisory board before making the decision.

Senior Conor Hanratty has a final year of eligibility remaining. But before he explores whether to continue his football career, he’ll undergo medical testing after suffering three concussions in the last calendar year.

As Malik Zaire helped the Irish pull off a critical win in the Music City Bowl, all eyes turned to the quarterback who wasn’t playing. After starting the season’s first 12 games, Everett Golson played a complementary role in the Irish victory, completed some clutch passes down the stretch during Notre Dame’s 31-28 victory.

With less than a month to go before National Signing Day, Notre Dame’s coaching staff has its entire focus on improving the team’s roster between now and the first Wednesday in February. After two-years of work on the current class — the roots of this group were seeded long, long ago — the next month turns into a high stakes, pressure game where college coaches build the foundation of their programs around the whims of (sometimes) coddled teenagers.

With Notre Dame’s Campus Crossroads project well under way, a report has surfaced that the Blue and Gold game could be on the move. Irish 247 reports that the annual spring game could be relocated to the home of the Chicago Bears, with construction forcing the Irish into Soldier Field.

It took less than a week for the Everett Golson rumor mill to get going. After the ESPN broadcast during the Music City Bowl widely speculated about Golson’s role in the program, a Times-Picayune report claims Golson reached out to LSU about potentially playing out his eligibility for Les Miles and the Tigers.

With a Music City Bowl victory in the rearview mirror, the Irish can head into the offseason without the stench of November’s woes still clinging to the team. For a bowl game that felt of minimal importance when most assumed a loss, the Irish’s 31-28 victory certainly turned the tides.

Just because the Irish finished their season with a victorious Music City Bowl doesn’t mean the football season is over. A large contingency from the 2015 signing class is taking part in various All-Star games over the holiday weekend, including the two flagship events: the U.S. Army All-American Bowl and the Under Armour All-American game.

On second viewing, Notre Dame’s victory over LSU still happened. After watching the Irish find ways not to get it done all November, Brian Kelly’s team handled adversity — and a leaky defense — and executed down the stretch, sending the Tigers faithful into the offseason grumbling about the foundation of their program.

The snickering started early. After choosing to receive, Notre Dame fumbled the opening kickoff. They burned their first timeout before running a play. And when Malik Zaire got tracked down in the backfield on his first attempted run, a tidal wave of social media chatter left the Irish for dead.

The 2014 season comes to a close on Tuesday afternoon, with Notre Dame playing the role of underdog against LSU in the Music City Bowl. Here’s your Pregame Six Pack as the Irish and Tigers get set to do battle.

Michigan is in the process of finalizing their deal to make former San Francisco 49ers head coach Jim Harbaugh their head football coach. After a mutually agreed upon divorce that feels like a satire on the life and times of Silicon Valley high society, Harbaugh will return to his alma mater to take on the reclamation project of returning the Victors to victories.

As we get into our Top 10, we begin to understand why the future is still rather bullish for Notre Dame. The five players listed below all have at least one season of eligibility remaining. That means that a group that performed more than admirably this season will be expected to do even more for the team in 2015. (The entire Top 10 has at least a year of eligibility remaining.)

Notre Dame’s football team arrived for the Music City Bowl on Friday, jetting in from around the country on 19 different flights after spending Christmas with their families. From there, the Irish had their first practice in Nashville, beginning game week preparations with LSU ahead.

Dallas Cowboys rookie Zack Martin was named to the Pro Bowl on Tuesday, the only offensive rookie selected to the game and one of six Cowboys. Martin has started all season at right guard for one of the NFL’s best rushing attacks.

Tommy Rees will begin his coaching career close to where his football career began. Rees, who played in all four of his seasons at Notre Dame from 2010-13, will be an offensive graduate assistant at Northwestern.